The Legend of God Eros and Mortal Psyche according to Greek Mythology
When God Eros was struck by his arrows and fell madly in love with a mortal, Psyche. What did Aphrodite do to punish the lovers? Find out below the legend of God Eros and Psyche according to Greek Mythology.
Romantic Love has always been a catalyst in people’s lives. Many praise it, many long for it, others avoid it out of fear. Artists were inspired by love and wrote poems full of desire, music full of pain, and paintings capable of conveying numerous emotions that you didn’t know you were feeling. Yet love was not only an emotion, a way of expression, and a source of inspiration, but also God.
God Eros
In ancient times, according to Hesiod’s Theogony which describes the origin of the gods, God Eros was one of the most important gods of antiquity as he was one of the three deities who created the Universe – the other two were Chaos and Gaia. This form of Eros was born before the gods of Olympus when Chaos gave birth to Gaia and Tartarus. According to Greek mythology, the god Eros is the offspring of Aphrodite and Ares.
Eros represented passion and love, emotions that created life. He appeared and threw his arrows, causing insane love and at the same time, suffering to people. According to all the myths, Eros was beautiful, but also a permanent source of trouble for both the gods and the mortals. He appeared and threw his arrows, causing insane love and at the same time, suffering to people. Nevertheless, he suffered from a common mortal, Psyche.
Eros and Aphrodite
Eros and Aphrodite had a prominent place among the ancient gods. They represented beauty and the erotic mood and evoked positive emotions in mortals. They were adored and were a source of inspiration for many artists. Of course, there are various other versions. According to Sappho, Eros came from Aphrodite and Uranus, while Alcaeus states that he is the son of Iris and Zephyrus. Finally, there are versions that he is the son of Hermes or Hephaestus, or that he is the son of Poros and Penia.
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Legend of God Eros and Mortal Psyche
According to the Roman writer Apuleius, the god Eros fell victim to himself. They say that there was a beautiful, mortal girl, Psyche, whose fame for her beauty reached the ends of the earth. As soon as the jealous goddess Aphrodite learned about the girl’s beauty, she felt threatened and sent her son Eros to poison all the men so that no one would want her. However, by accident Eros wounded himself with his arrows, and he fell madly in love with her.
The Prophecy of the Oracle
As the years passed and Psyche could not marry anyone, like her other sisters who had already started families. Psyche’s parents, worried because the years were passing and despite her beauty, she was not getting married, went to get help from the Delphic Oracle.
In Delphi, Apollo, under the guidance of the god Eros, told them that Psyche is not intended for any mortal man. Her husband is waiting for her at the top of a mountain, and he is a disgusting dragon, whom no one, neither mortal nor immortal, can resist. Furthermore, Psyche needed to dress up as a bride had to go to the top of a mountain and wait for a monster“. Although her parents were unimaginably upset by this oracle, they decided to fulfill it by marrying Psyche with the „monster“ of the mountain. Therefore, the girl went to the top of the mountain, where the wind Zefyros took pity on her and transported her to a green valley with a magnificent palace that Eros had built for her.
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Jealousy and Betrayal
When the wedding took place, Psyche lived in the palace created by Eros and visited her every night, without revealing his face to her. However, he was very tender and kind to her. As soon as her sisters learned that Psyche was living an amazing life, they became jealous and deceived her by telling her that this man was the monster of the oracle as he would not let her see his face. They convince Psyche that she needed to kill him first as the “monster” ultimately wanted to kill her. Psyche then wanted to kill the “monster”.
When Psyche returned to the palace she laid down with her mysterious husband. When he fell asleep, she took a lamp and a knife to kill him. As she leaned over him and illuminated his face with the lamp, she saw to her great surprise the beautiful God Eros. Startled, Psyche the lamp tilted to the side and poured hot oil on Eros. Eros woke up from the pain and flew away, telling her that her suspicion had killed their love and that they could no longer be together since she – a mortal – saw the face of an immortal.
As soon as Psyche understood that her sisters betrayed her, she immediately regretted her actions and began to look for Eros everywhere. After much wandering, she arrived at the temple of the goddess Demeter, who told her to ask Aphrodite to let her see her son, who had imprisoned him.
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Aphrodite’s Tests
She then asked Aphrodite for help, but for Aphrodite to let her see her son, she had to pass three tests. The first one was for her to pick out a huge number of legumes. The second one was for her to bring golden hair from wild sheep, and the third one was for her to go to the underworld to bring Persephone’s box that contained a magic elixir of beauty and Psyche was not to open it. Psyche completed the first two tasks successfully. However, she did not resist the temptation and opened the box to get some of the elixir, but Persephone had put Morpheus in the box, which threw her into a deep sleep.
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The Final Union
When Eros learned what his beloved had suffered, he escaped from prison and flew to Olympus and begged Zeus to save the Psyche. Zeus touched by the love of the god Eros, made Psyche immortal, allowing Eros to unite with her forever.
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